City council created the "Cannabis Store" designation through a zoning and development bylaw amendment at a council meeting on Tuesday night.

This will replace the existing "Medical Marijuana Related Use" (MMRU), so that pot shops also selling non-recreational marijuana can operate under city regulations.

"We essentially took the existing land use definitions and rules that we had in place for an MMRU and we basically opened that up to all cannabis," said Kaye Krishna, general manager of development, buildings and licensing, at a press conference Wednesday.

"It's the same rules — but for all cannabis."

Following legalization of non-medical cannabis, licensed cannabis retail stores will be the only locations where federally approved non-medical cannabis can be purchased legally in Vancouver.

As of Oct. 17, stores will be able to sell dried and fresh cannabis, as well as oils, seeds and seedlings. A framework for edibles could come within a year.

Existing requirements remain

All existing requirements for operating a cannabis store in the future will be the same as the existing MMRU stores — which includes only operating in commercial zones and maintaining a distance of at least 300 metres from schools, community centres, and other cannabis retailers.

Under the new retail model, operators will also be required to have three pieces of approval — municipal land use approval, a provincial operator business license, and a municipal business license — to be fully compliant.

Lawyer Robert Laurie, who will be representing over a dozen dispensaries in B.C. Supreme Court this fall in what will be a precedent-setting case, said the 300-metre rule is an "elimination strategy, not a regulatory scheme."

"Ultimately, we want to see cannabis treated on parity, not more restrictively, with alcohol and other harmful substances," he said.